Mladen and Del review ‘Tron: Ares’
Image courtesy of Disney Studios.
“Tron: Ares” Starring Jared Leto as Ares, Greta Lee as Eve Kim, Jodie Turner-Smith as Athena, Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger and others. Directed by Joachim Rǿnning. 1 hour 59 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Spoilers: Sure.
Mladen’s take
Don’t listen to the other critics talking crap about “Tron: Ares.” It’s a good movie with a touch of heart despite the sometimes too loud Goth industrial electropunk score and its very, very vivid color palette.
I saw the film (twice) in 3D, once in IMAX and the last time in a plain ole theater. Wholly guacamole did the reds of the filmography and the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack dig deep into my brain’s sensory lobes. After, oh, 45 minutes of exposure to the pulsating everything on the screen and the raucous thumping of lows and highs coming from the speakers I got tired, if not frustrated, by the frenetic aural and visual activity. But, like the trooper I am, I persevered to see the guts of computers anthropomorphized into human forms reflecting the good and bad of our species, as well as humans being human.
Jared Leto does a good job as Ares, a program that evolves from a data‑spouting automaton following directives without question at the beginning of the film to a human-like being trying to understand the difference between right and wrong while chasing the “Permanence Code.” Jodie Turner‑Smith as Athena was a confident, menacing foil to Ares’ introspective side. She kicked ass and came back for more again and again. No “Impediment” was going to stop her from completing her mission.
Ares’ wish to “live” made it/him sympathetic. Who among us doesn’t want to stop taking orders from The Man to chase our dreams? Obedient Athena – obedient to the “user” who runs her “Grid” – is determined to fulfill her directive – find human Kim, teleport her to the Grid by deconstructing her, reconstruct her as a digital copy, and extract the Permanence Code from Kim though it will kill her. Athena’s single mindedness, if it could be described that way, is chilling.
The Ares and Athena antagonism unfolds amid a feud between corporate titan and good gal Kim, charmingly played by Lee, and corporate titan and bad guy Dillinger, effectively played by Peters, as they pursue the Permanence Code for the artificial creations their hyper‑fast, algorithm‑driven, and laser‑spewing machines produce. Permanence means that programs like Ares and Athena manifesting in the Real would survive longer than 29 minutes, the confounding limit of their life spans outside their home world. Of course, Kim wants to use permanence to feed humanity, provide health care, and develop alternative fuels. Yeah, Dillinger wants to sell permanence weapons to the military.
“Tron: Ares” is a B+. There’s no need to see it in 3D, which costs more. It just worked out that way for me. I suspect the film’s loudness and vividness was amplified by the 3D, bringing the film close to sensory overload.
Del’s take
I barely remember the 1982 “Tron” (I think I watched it drunk) and “Tron: Legacy” exists in my memory as a single image of Jeff Bridges standing atop some towering digital artifact. In truth the premise of these movies – that flesh-and-blood human beings can be digitized and loaded into a computer, then reconstituted thanks to the miracle of laser 3-D printers – is so freaking stupid I’m not willing to suspend my disbelief.
That’s weird because many of the movies I love – “The Matrix,” “Cloverfield,” “Star Wars: A New Hope” (the best “Star Wars” movie EVER and I don’t care what Mladen says) – are based on stupid premises yet I love them just the same. If I were having this conversation with a therapist he or she would want me to drill down to the real reason I don’t like them.
I think it’s because the plots are so very very standard-issue, unimaginative good-guy-vs.-bad-guy pablum we’ve seen a bazillion times in the past: Loser squares off against powerful dude – the love of a good woman is at stake – and somehow, despite EVERYTHING, the loser succeeds and becomes a not-loser, which I guess we call a winner.
That’s “Tron: Ares,” only this time the loser is a digital proprietary program that malfunctions … and develops a soul. I’m not sure how you 3-D map a soul but that doesn’t stop “Tron: Ares” and let’s just say he follows the trajectory of all these superhero and quasi-superhero movies to their inevitable conclusion. At least the Marvel movies have the decency to throw in some self-deprecating humor. None of that here.
The movie is gorgeous to look at although the digital domain, with its dominant red and black color palette, reminded me of Hell. The special effects were what you might expect from a movie who’s sole artistic virtue is special effects.
Jared Leto was wooden as Ares but then you can’t blame him – he was playing the part he was given. Really, everybody here did an adequate job of filling their roles, although Gillian Anderson and Evan Peters are always better in anything they do.
My understanding is that one of the major draws was the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack. I was expecting something on the order of Vangelis’ score for “Blade Runner,” but no, that would not be an apt comparison. Trent Reznor went all Teutonic Goth and produced a hammering, thunderous score that relentlessly beats you into a bloody, cowering pulp hiding behind your seat on the sticky floor. It’s way too much. I came out of the theater feeling like I’d gone 10 rounds with Oleksandr Usyk.
The other night I cleansed my palate with one of the greatest science fiction-horror movies of the ’60s ever made, the vastly underrated “Quatermass and the Pit.” My God, what a movie! It reminded me that good films that tell original stories really do exist in more than just concept. I hope one day to see another movie that inspires that kind of enthusiasm from me. In 2025 it seems Hollywood is more focused on churning out “content” and making as much money as possible. Art is no longer part of the equation. How sad.
Mladen was too generous in his rating of “Tron: Ares.” It’s really worth only a C+. Even the original arcade game it’s based on was better, though good luck finding a functional machine today.
By all means, see “Tron: Ares” in a theater. But bring your headphones to filter out some of the thunder.
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios and Disney.
Starring Florence Pugh as unhappy Yelena Belova, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as evil Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Hannah John-Kamen as space warping Ava Starr, David Harbour as lovable Alexei Shostakov the Red Guardian, Sebastian Stan as Congressman Bucky Barnes with the super arm, Wyatt Russell as Captain America wannabe John Walker, Lewis Pullman as bipolar Robert Reynolds, Geraldine Viswanathan as implementer of evil Mel, and others. Directed by Jake Schreier. 2 hours 6 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theatrical release.
Plot summary: Three former foes, the reformed Winter Soldier, and a father figure-like limo driver team up to help Bob (aka Robert), a Super Man-like personage, lift himself from the pit of despair to keep himself, themselves, and at least a part of New York from getting consumed by the Blackness of Past Bad Deeds and Regrets which he generated.
Mladen’s take
This feels weird. I’m writing my first Movie Faceoff without the Face Off. Del, for some mealy and vague reason, chose not to see “Thunderbolts*”. Too bad, Stone, it’s a pretty good piece of moviemaking. And, yeah, it helped that Dusty and I saw the film in a Dolby-equipped theater. Lots of gunfire, explosions, concrete fracturing, metal twisting, and a crane falling from great height make for terrific entertainment when you can feel the noise throughout your body.
“Thunderbolts*” is an odd superhero film. Sure, even the B-tier superheroes portrayed in this movie are way more capable than your average Joe but, if the film has any message about the wonders of having exceptional power, it’s this: One’s mental health is important, too. It wasn’t until I mentally accepted the movie’s premise that I was able to sit back, legs reclined, to enjoy the vast chaos unfolding before my eyes on a two-story screen.
Two characters in particular made the movie enjoyable, though all the acting is good.
Louis-Dreyfus’s de Fontaine, the director of the CIA and mastermind of a program to make the next superhero because the Avengers are gone, is an immaculate evil-doer. De Fontaine takes the hunger for power and her self-image as America’s savior to the next level. She plays with fire again and again without getting burned. Hell, she even tries to overpower Bob through the con games of persuasion, motherly guilt, and intellectual bravado and, get this, survives. Impressive. Why? Because Bob is starting to realize he doesn’t have to listen to anybody about anything. Why? Because he can kick anybody’s ass anytime. In fact, he can kick multiple asses at the same time as a neat fight sequence about half-way through “Thunderbolts*” demonstrates.
Harbour as the Red Guardian is an ox of a man with a heart as big. He also has a sense of humour, ah, humor. He is the film’s light-hearted comic relief, extracting optimism from a flood of bad news at every turn and spraying the hope again and again that everything will be OK. The Red Guardian does all of that without getting campy. Stick around for the two scenes as the credits roll. He’s great in both.
I suppose the film’s focus on the debilitating effects of traumatic childhood events and the feeling of purposelessness in adult life should be commended. That both are central to the plot of “Thunderbolts*”, a film that falls squarely in the superhero genre, is captivating, sort of. Maybe it’s even cathartic. Many people believe what they see in movies is true. A superhero suffering from mental illness shows regular folks that depression can afflict anyone, that it’s not a weakness or a character flaw. But, in the film, the effort to depict the psychological impact of a troubled mind as a tangible fixture of, I don’t know, the Marvel multiverse, leads to confusing imagery and hyper-kinetic action amid the clutter of moving rapidly from one space to another with intermittent bouts of shattering glass and walls disappearing and such. It is a jumble of “Inception”-like confusion. Thank goodness for the Dolby-amplified noise that came along with those scenes. The sound effects rendered those parts of the film only mildly frustrating.
Also, I’m irritated by the asterisk in the title of the movie. Anyone know what it means? I didn’t see a footnote at the bottom of the movie poster or as the credits rolled explaining the asterisk. So, I’m guessing that the asterisk provokes the question about what’s next for Marvel. Come on, Disney, are the gang of five mostly do-gooders in “Thunderbolts*” the new Avengers or are they not?
Film grade: B
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
Image courtesy of Disney Studios.
“Tomorrowland” Starring George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, and Hugh Laurie. Directed by Brad Bird. 130 minutes. Rated PG.
Mladen’s take
I disliked the film “Tomorrowland,” but it’s my fault. I’m a bigot. There’s nothing anyone can say or do to make me like people. Del’s influence, in that regard, by the way, only feeds my bigotry.
That’s the task the actors and actress in “Tomorrowland” were given. They had to convince me – for I am Audience – that humanity was worth saving, that a society can choose its destiny, that we can reverse climate change, end food deprivation, and stop fighting wars. It was something about deciding which “wolf to feed,” the one of darkness and despair or the one of light and hope, according to this Disney sci-fi adventure.
In the film, Frank (George Clooney) and Casey (Britt Robertson), both humans, and Athena (Raffey Cassidy), a robot, struggle against the governor of Tomorrowland and his tachyon-fired machine, which sees the future. According to the orb with blue streams of light that attach it, I assume, to spacetime, Mankind will expire in roughly 59 days.
My response to the countdown was, “Hallelujah, about goddamned time humanity took it full-fist on the chin.” It’s vital that we kill ourselves before infesting space with our spore. Let us end ourselves before we end everything else.
But, no.
Do-gooder Casey, a STEM whiz kid of the first order, ends up cajoled by automaton Athena into trying to reverse mankind’s headlong plunge into the abyss. Along the way, Casey meets Frank, who was once like her – an optimist and believer in the wonderfulness of technology, which could turn savages (us) into hearts of gold and empathy. Frank, like Casey, also used to never give up. The vibrant youngster and disillusioned old timer, protected by Athena, go on a spectacular adventure that includes an epic scene involving the Eiffel Tower and battles with cyborgs wielding sound-pulse handguns and beam rifles. I must confess I was amused by the terminator that smiled at all the wrong times.
Does the trio save mankind? Eh, it doesn’t matter.
You should drop a dime to see “Tomorrowland” at the theater, not because the film is intelligible or uplifting or leaves you with a sense of wonder and hope. See the movie to support two fine young actresses – Robertson and Cassidy. There’s a risk that if the film bombs at the box office, it’ll slow their ascent in Hollywood. Moore and Bullock ain’t going to be around forever.
And, yes, Clooney does pull off something remarkable in the film. He’s his usual charming self even when playing the role of a curmudgeon exiled from a spit-and-polish utopia embedded somewhere out there in another dimension.
Del’s take
The world is going to hell in a handbasket – yes, we get that. But what are YOU doing to fix it?
That is the message, delivered with blunt force trauma, of “Tomorrowland.” The movie, a two-hour 12-step program for recovering Negative Nellies, correctly asks us to believe each and every one of us must take action to ensure a golden future. But the message is delivered with such clumsy ham-handedness I wonder if “Tomorrowland’s” target demographic isn’t that 12-year-old whose brain has been damaged by “Grand Theft Auto.”
In “Tomorrowland” a young woman (Britt Robertson’s Casey) who is trying to make the world a better place catches a glimpse of a bright and shiny future complete with jet packs, levitating trains, rockets to the stars and a multi-cultural, egalitarian society consisting of peace-loving PhDs who have figured out how mankind can live in harmony with nature. But the accidental snake in this garden of Eden (George Clooney’s Frank), conjures a machine that sees the past and the future. It’s vision of what follows becomes self-fulfilling, and the countdown to mankind’s extinction has begun.
The two young female actors deliver excellent performances, as does Hugh Laurie as Gov. Nix. George Clooney delivers George Clooney, and while that’s not objectionable it doesn’t do a lot to advance the storytelling planchette.
“Tomorrowland” is typical Disney fare – wholesome and uplifting. You’ll hear no cursing, and most of the violence is robot on robot. The only deviation from the Disney credo is our young heroine’s penchant for committing acts of vandalism, all in the name of good, of course.
“Tomorrowland’s” problems are its complexity, with stories within stories that must be worked out. At times it was hard to connect the dots and I simply went with what was on the screen, hoping realization would dawn.
The bigger problem was the movie’s lack of subtlety. At times the characters seemed to be saying, “This is what the movie is about.” All this was capped off by a Gov. Nix soliloquy toward the end where he does tell us what the movie’s about. That’s when I decided I was watching “Tomorrowland” the wrong way. As a children’s movie it works just fine.
My thinking is “Tomorrowland” may find a place in the digital libraries of illegally downloaded movies among the John Green crowd, but for adults it’s thin gruel.
I grade it a C+.
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical editor. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and author.